"Stubborn Souls", BtVS/Dead Like Me, R, part 4
When George announced that she had to go to the work the next day, she got resistance from two sources - Xander and, surprisingly, Lauren. Xander just seemed worried that she hadn’t had any sleep, since by the time she, Bree, and Liz had wrestled the tranqed werewolves into the SUV, had driven back to the house, and wrestled them into the basement where Faith chained them up, there was no point in even trying to get any sleep. George explained to him that Reapers need less sleep than normal people, and he seemed to accept that.
“But can’t you call in sick, or take a personal day?” he asked. “Seems like if ever there’s a time…”
“There’s always a time when you’re a Reaper,” George said. “I don’t have any sick days or personal days left for the year.”
Faith laughed. “Sounds like being a Slayer.”
Xander frowned. “Except you ladies don’t have to work in addition to being the Slayer. This is like when Buffy had to work at the Doublemeat Palace.”
“Oh, no,” George said. “Happy Time is bad, but not that bad. I do have to get going, though. I still have to stop off at home and get dressed for work, and then I have to pick up today’s post-it from Rube.”
“You have to do that today?” Dawn asked. The rest of the Slayers had headed off to bed, but she’d stuck around, and she had her notebook with her again, which made George nervous. “I mean, you still have Lauren, and it’s not your fault.”
George shrugged. “Rube might not give me a post-in, but he’ll be pissed off if I’m not there to get one,” she said. “Lauren, are you staying, or coming with me?”
“Coming with you,” Lauren said. She had her hands clenched at her sides. “It’s really annoying. I want to stay here and help with the Slaying, but I feel this compulsion to go with you. Why can’t you stay here?”
“Did you not listen to what I just said?” George said. She didn’t have time for this.
“Lauren wants to stay, right?” Xander said, and when George nodded, said, "It's all right, Lauren. We’re all headed to bed, anyway. And we’ll see you at the meeting this evening with Rube and whatever expert he’s bringing in. Do you know who it is?” he asked George.
“No idea,” she said, and finally got away.
Luckily, Rube didn’t have a post-it for her.
“You have enough on your plate, Peanut,” he said, and he didn’t even look at Lauren, sulking in a booth over by the windows, when he said it. Daisy pouted when she got two post-its, but Rube just threatened her with coming to the meeting that evening, and she left in a hurry. Mason followed her, and Roxy had already come and gone. George was running late, but she couldn’t help but ask Rube who this expert was.
“He’s a Reaper in another division,” Rube said.
“Like the Plague Division?”
Rube nodded. “This is the Supernatural Division. They’re the busiest at night, which was why I knew I wouldn’t be able to get in touch with him yesterday. I want to know why you got a post-it that was obviously meant for his division.”
“Will he know?” George asked. “I mean, you don’t.”
Rube glared at her and got up to leave. “Let’s hope he does,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away.
Work was its usual annoying self that day, with the added aggravation to Lauren tagging along everywhere she went, complaining constantly about not being able to touch anything. And how her parents were getting home today and they’d better be okay. And how she couldn’t eat anything. (George asked her if she was hungry, and she said no, just bored.) And how she really wanted to get out of there and slay something.
To make matters worse, Dolores spent half an hour in George’s cubicle, telling her about Murphy’s latest urinary tract infection…exactly where he’d been peeing in her apartment, what the vet had said, how much Murphy hated the antibiotics, and exactly what Dolores would have to do to collect a urine sample after the antibiotics were done. Any other day, that would just have been part of the background noise of George’s unlife, but add in a bored Slayer who kept making faces that only George could see behind Dolores, and it was one of the worst days that she could remember having at Happy Time. She had never wanted to meet with Rube so badly, and she didn’t even stop to change her clothes before leading Lauren to Der Waffle Haus.
Rube was there already, along with another man George didn’t recognize. He had a nasty scar that went all the way across his throat, but that couldn’t have been what killed him, because then he wouldn’t have had it. George would bet that there was an interesting story there, but she wasn’t about to ask it. The man was scruffy, sexy as hell, and so hard and dangerous looking that George didn’t even want to ask him his name, let alone something personal. She realized she was staring when Rube pointedly introduced him as Theodore Brown.
“Call me Theo,” he said, holding out his hand for her to shake. His accent made him seem even better looking. George shook his hand, trying not to blush, and was actually grateful to Lauren when the Slayer took advantage of her invisibility to most people and climbed up to sit on the divider between the lines of booths. She dangled her feet perilously close to Rube’s head and grinned at them.
“Lauren!” George said, though she didn’t expect the Slayer to listen to her. But Theo laughed.
“Don’t bother,” he said. “Slayer Reaps are notoriously hard to control. And they stick around for far too long.”
“Oh, shit yeah,” George said, sinking into the booth across from Rube and Theo. “So this is normal.”
“Well,” Theo began, but Rube said, “Wait for the rest, or we’ll be here all night.”
George rolled her eyes, but then put her arms on the table and rested her head on them. Rube and Theo talked quietly, and Lauren kept kicking the booth, but even so, she was almost asleep when Xander, Faith, and Dawn walked in. She sat up, trying to look awake and professional, but by the look on Rube’s face, she didn’t manage it.
Dawn slid into the booth next to George, Xander on her other side. Faith tossed her hair over one shoulder and sat next to Theo.
As soon as the three of them were seated, Rube said, “Everyone, this is - “
“Wesley,” Dawn said. “Wow, Faith and Willow said you’d changed, and they weren’t kidding.”
Xander and Faith both stared at her for a moment, then looked at Theo, then stared at her again.
“This is Theodore Brown,” Rube said.
“Call me Theo,” Theo said again. He so deliberately didn’t look gob smacked by Dawn’s statement that George knew it must be true. She looked at Rube, who just barely shook his head at her, so she didn’t say anything.
“No,” Dawn said. “You’re Wesley.” She sounded halfway between convinced and doubtful.
“No, Dawnie,” Xander said, sounding sad. “He’s not. Wesley’s dead, remember?”
“Obviously, he’s dead,” Dawn said. “So is George.” She turned to George and added, “Sorry.”
“Still,” Faith said. “I saw Wesley a lot more recently than you did, Dawn, and this dude ain’t him.”
“No,” Theo-Wesley said. “I’m sorry - Dawn, is it? - but I’m not your friend.”
“Oh, he wasn’t my friend,” Dawn said, watching him closely. “He was a bit of an ass, actually.”
“Then I’m sorry I remind you of him,” Theo-Wesley said.
“Whatever,” Faith said. “Can we get to the point? I’ve got Slayers dying here.”
Dawn rolled her eyes at her, but she didn’t question Theo-Wesley any more. She didn’t seem convinced, though.
“Right,” Rube said. “Theo Brown is the head of the Supernatural Division of Reapers here in Seattle. Someone in his group should have gotten Lauren’s post-it instead of George. He doesn’t know why that is, either.”
Theo-Wesley shook his head. “I’ve never known this to happen before. Occasionally, Reapers will help out those in other divisions, if there’s a need. But that kind of request always goes through the proper channels, and everyone knows what kind of Reap they’re collecting. Some types of supernatural deaths have been up as of late, but my division is perfectly well-equipped to handle them.”
“Some types?” Xander asked. “I’m Xander Harris, by the way, and this is Faith Lehane and Dawn Summers.”
“Nice to meet you all,” Theo-Wesley said. He looked quite deliberately into the eyes of all three of them, making George even more sure that Dawn was right. Theo Brown was his normal-person name, the name he used whenever he might run into people he’s known during his life. He'd definitely known all three of these people.
“Deaths by vampire have been down,” Theo-Wesley continued. “Thanks to you Slayers, I’m certain. As have the deaths that had been caused by that demon gang you took care of when you first arrived in Seattle - you didn’t get all of them, by the way.”
“Shit,” Faith said. “Do you know where they’re holed up?”
“Theo,” Rube said, keeping his eyes on his menu.
Theo-Wesley looked at him, then back at Faith. “The recent deaths have all been in the south-west part of the city,” he said. “There haven’t been many, so you did get most of them.”
“We should have gotten all of them,” Faith almost growled. “And any left means they’ll recruit more. We need to deal with this soon, Xander.”
“I’ll put Bree on it,” Xander said, and Dawn, who’d already pulled out her notebook, started scribbling madly. “She’s good at patterns - she’ll find them.”
Faith nodded and turned back to Theo-Wesley, but before he could continue, Kiffany showed up, eyebrows raised.
“Sorry, Kiffany,” Rube said. “We’ve been a little busy. What does everyone want to eat? The Reuben and the peach pie are quite good, and you can get breakfast any time.”
There was a flurry to look at menus, and then everyone ordered something. Except Lauren, of course, who started whining about not being able to eat again. George pointed out that she could always move on if she was hungry, and she subsided, grumbling. Faith ordered an utterly amazing amount of food, even to George, who was used to watching Rube eat.
“So, deaths by most supernatural causes have been down,” Theo-Wesley said once Kiffany had gone away again. “But deaths by werewolf have been very much up, and more of those have been Slayers than one would expect, even knowing about the Great Activation.”
“Is that what they’re calling it?” Xander asked, grinning.
“That’s what we’re calling it, anyway,” Theo-Wesley said. “It’s no walk in the park, dealing with Slayers’ souls. No offense, Lauren.”
“You can see her, too?” Dawn asked. It was the first time she’d said anything to him since her identification had been shot down.
“Any Reaper can see her,” Theo-Wesley said. “Supernatural Divisions all over the world have been dealing with more Slayer souls than before, of course, but nothing compares to here and now. Every one of my Reapers had a Slayer Reap following him around last month.”
“How many do you have?” Faith asked.
“Five,” Theo-Wesley said, looking confused.
“Fuck,” Faith said. “We thought Lauren was the third Slayer we hadn’t reached in time, which was bad enough, but now you’re telling me there were at least three more?”
Theo-Wesley nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Why are there so many Slayers in Seattle?” Xander asked, though George thought he wasn’t really expecting an answer. “Was there anything different about these Slayers, Theo?”
“No, they seemed just like any other Slayer -”
“How do you know what Slayers are like?” Dawn asked, glaring at him.
“Dawn,” Xander said, but Theo-Wesley smiled.
“Reapers don’t age after they die,” he said. “They stay looking the same age as the time they died forever. You don’t know how old any of us really would be, if we were still alive. And I’ve met Slayers before.”
Dawn narrowed her eyes at him, but Kiffany showed up then with their food, and sometime during the plate-juggling and trying to figure out who needed ketchup, she must have decided not to pursue it. George noticed Xander giving Theo-Wesley a funny look, too, so Dawn wasn’t the only one who’d noticed how carefully he’d phrased that.
Once everyone was busy chewing, Rube, who had only ordered a piece of the peach pie and a coffee, put down his fork.
“While we’re sorry that so many of your friends are dying,” he said, “to us, this is just a day at the office. People die from all sorts of things, including werewolves. All I want to know is why George got a post-it she shouldn’t have, and I don’t think any of you know why.”
Faith shook her head while taking a huge bite out of a hamburger, but Xander and Dawn looked thoughtful.
“We’ve often found that when something like that happens, there’s a reason,” Xander said. “I guess we should ask, is there anything unusual about you, George? Are you like other Reapers?”
“She’s a bigger fuck-up,” Rube said.
“Asshole,” George said, sticking her tongue out at him.
“But she’s getting better,” Rube said.
Of course, he didn’t know what she’d done just the other day. She’d never heard of any other Reaper taking a graveling’s soul, and neither had Mason or Daisy. But that didn’t mean she was anything special. Maybe no one had ever thought of it before. She shrugged and shook her head at Xander.
“Hm,” he said. “Well, we’ve called our friend Willow, who is one of the most powerful witches in the world, and she’ll be here tomorrow. Maybe she’ll have some ideas.”
“Witches are real, too?” George said, feeling her world tilt yet again. “Pointy hats and broomsticks and everything?”
“Witches, yes,” Xander said. “The other stuff, no. Anyway, she’s also the smartest person I’ve ever met. She’ll think of something.”
“I hope so,” George said. “Because Lauren says she’s not going anywhere until her parents are safe, and I guess that won’t be until your problem is fixed.”
“So maybe we should -” Theo-Wesley started to say, but Rube cut him off.
“Lauren’s parents are perfectly safe,” he said. “The werewolves are targeting Slayers, not their parents.”
“You don’t know that,” Lauren said. “And I’m not leaving until we know they are.”
Faith snorted. “Let me guess, she just told you to go jump off a cliff.”
“Basically,” George said.
“Well,” Xander said, standing up and taking out his wallet. “You’re welcome over at Slayer Central anytime, George. And I have a feeling Lauren will make you visit.”
George groaned and rested her head against the divider Lauren was sitting on. Lauren nudged her head with her knee at the same time Dawn patted her on the shoulder and slid out of the booth, pushing Xander out of her way and getting a smile in return. Faith took a few last fries off her plate and stuffed them in her mouth as she stood.
“See you,” she said, and headed out the door. Dawn followed her, but Xander put some money down on the table and then pulled a card out of his wallet and handed it to George.
“Here’s our number,” he said. “Call if you need anything.” Then he headed off, too.
“But how will you reach me if you need me or Lauren?” George called after him.
Xander didn’t even turn around. “Willow will find you,” he said over his shoulder.
“What the fuck?” George said, but he kept on walking, so she turned back to Rube and Theo-Wesley. “And what the fuck’s up with Dawn recognizing you? Halloween was days ago.”
“I have absolutely no idea,” Theo-Wesley said. “Except that the Dawn I knew wasn’t also a ball of green light. Did she tell you what that’s all about?”
“She said it was a long, long story,” George said. “I’ve been a bit distracted - I haven’t really asked.”
“I think you should as soon as possible,” Theo-Wesley said. “If that’s not really Dawn -”
“What does it matter?” Rube said. “Whatever that girl is doesn’t have anything to do with why George got that post-it.”
“Probably not,” Theo-Wesley said.
“And that’s the important thing,” Rube said. “I know you like these people, Wesley, and that dealing with problems like this used to be important to you. But it can’t be anymore. A death is a death is a death, and all you’re meant to do is collect the souls.”
“He’s given me the same speech many, many times,” George said.
“One day you’ll listen to it,” Rube said, and George raised her hands at him.
“I’ve given that speech myself,” Theo-Wesley said. “And meant it. But these people sometimes fight things that try to end the world. That would be bad for us, too.”
“Would it?” George asked. “I mean, it’d be bad, yeah, but we’re already dead.”
“Are all the people you care about?” asked Theo-Wesley. “Or all the people they cared about? I think it would be bad for us.”
“It probably would be,” Rube said. “But we still aren’t going to get involved. Especially not you. Dawn isn’t going to drop this if you give her more time to see you.”
“I know,” Theo-Wesley said. “I know. It’s just hard.”
Rube sighed. “It always is.”